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For Love of Country: An Essay On Patriotism and Nationalism

Online ISBN:
9780191600289
Print ISBN:
9780198293583
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

For Love of Country: An Essay On Patriotism and Nationalism

Maurizio Viroli
Maurizio Viroli

Professor of Politics

Princeton University
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Published online:
1 November 2003
Published in print:
2 October 1997
Online ISBN:
9780191600289
Print ISBN:
9780198293583
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

In scholarly literature and common language, patriotism is often conflated with nationalism, which is associated with an exclusive, intolerant, and irrational attachment to one's nation. As the history of Fascism and Nazism shows, patriotism understood as nationalism can have disastrous consequences. Nevertheless, this book argues that the language of patriotism must be distinguished from that of nationalism. While nationalism values the cultural, religious, and ethnic unity of a people, patriotism is the love of a people's common liberty, which gives us the strength to resist oppression by the selfish ambitions of particular individuals. In addition, patriotism is a rational love, since civic virtue is instrumental to the preservation of law and order, which is the prerequisite of our liberty. The question we must address is how to make our particular love of one's own country compatible with the universal principles of liberty and justice. Through a historical interpretation of patriotism from classical antiquity to contemporary debates, Viroli explores the possibility of patriotism without nationalism; i.e. one that emphasizes political unity based on the republican commitment to the common good, rather than cultural, religious, or ethnic homogeneity.

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